


Waiting

by blood_and_cigars



Category: Hellsing
Genre: AU, Alucard is completely bewildered, Angst, F/M, Integra’s dead, Like...wait wait wait she was SICK? When did this happen?, Sad vampire man can’t keep track of time, The ship is super periphary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-27
Updated: 2018-11-27
Packaged: 2019-09-01 10:52:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16763710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blood_and_cigars/pseuds/blood_and_cigars
Summary: Integra is dead. And what is left for a servant who has no master?





	Waiting

He woke to the strangest sensation. At first it felt like freedom. Like a weight he hadn’t been aware of was lifted from him. Like he could finally _breathe_.

He spent a few moments like that, in a somewhat pleasant bafflement, unsure what this change was or what it meant. It lasted long enough for him to shake off the last vestiges of sleep and attune himself to his surroundings.

He lifted the lid of his coffin. It was midday. He could feel the sun beating away outside. But there was something strange… There was an emptiness… A yawning silence he couldn’t place.

And then he knew.

It took a moment to simply dissolve into shadows, into nothingness and reappear at the heart of this new emptiness:

A small sitting room in a summer cottage, overlooking the sea. Hardwood floors, a large plushy sofa and a cigar still smoldering in the ash tray.

Alucard looked down at the slowly cooling body.

She was on the floor, and that was wrong. He wanted to lift her up, onto the sofa at least, but that was also wrong. To touch her would be a desecration.

At a loss, he knelt down by her. He was far too confused to feel the stirrings of grief, anger, or whatever it was he was meant to feel.

She had told him that she was sick… some time ago. And as usual he had reminded her of the most efficient cure there was.

“Side effects do include intense photosensitivity, intolerance for silver and all its compounds… and an appetite for blood.” 

She’d smiled at him, wry. “I think you forgot death.” 

“An inconsequential thing, isn’t it?” 

She’d laughed, but her lip trembled when she said, “I just might take you up on that offer. Later.” 

He couldn’t remember much about the particular frailties that humans had. It was difficult to follow but she’d never seemed ravaged by illness. And she was still so young.

She’d said the beach house would be a change of scenery. That she needed a warmer, brighter climate. He glanced down at her— the body. Her eyes did not flicker, her heart was still silent. No, she was very cold now.

Recently… perhaps a week ago? He had trouble keeping time. Recently, she had pulled him aside, into her office. No… it must’ve been more than a week.

Her eyes had been too bright and she’d looked at him with a grim, almost disgusted, set to her mouth. 

"That cure of yours is looking especially tempting now. I think it’s the best option I have. I think— I think I want it.” 

He’d only watched her, grinning lazily. Waiting. Of course she’d dance around the words, she couldn’t even ask him out right. 

”That’s my decision,” she’d said. “Just— just do it and be done with it.” 

And then he said— because he was exceptionally stupid and prideful and had wanted to draw out whatever worthless small victory this was— he’d said “Are you sure? Give yourself time to consider, my Master. One does not condemn their soul lightly.” 

She’d closed her eyes, and let out a long breath. “Fine. You’re right. I shouldn’t rush.” 

But she must have lost her resolve or simply waited too long.

Because then she’d left for this cottage. And there she’d fallen on this floor. And now she would never rise again.

He didn’t know what he should do. He didn’t have any orders. He would never receive another one. He simply sat by her, and waited.

**Author's Note:**

> Truthfully, I think Alucard’s grief would be clouded initially by an all consuming confusion. He hasn’t been free in nearly a century, that sudden and complete autonomy is so alien to him. 
> 
> I was verrrrry tempted to have him arrive soon enough that he could absorb her soul as a familiar. 
> 
> But in the end I couldn’t decide on how exactly I wanted to handle the rules for making someone into a familiar. I think I like this version better anyway.


End file.
